Electron transfer is fundamental process in the wide-range fields of chemistry. Electron transfer plays key roles in plenty of chemical phenomena, such as redox of metal complexes, electrochemical reactions, photochemical reactions, photosynthesis, catalysis, metabolic processes in biological system and etc.
Recently, electron transfer through single molecule and small-number molecular system under solvent-free conditions have acquired importance with the development of nano-science and technology. Investigations of electron transfer for single molecular level requires to deal with electron tunneling and/or quantum conduction under strong electric field and/or nano-scale mechanical forces. Furthermore, fluctuation and localization effect increase in importance for the system consisting of small number of molecules.
We focus on the realization of brain-mimetic molecular system which is a new direction of molecular electronics, using assembling single and/or small-number of molecules. Our goal is inter-connection between chemical/physical properties of nano-scale molecular systems and electronic functions from the viewpoint of information processing using scanning probe microscopy and nano-scale electrodes.